Panama City (Fuerte Amador, Balboa)

Most cruise ships to Panama City dock (anchor) at Port Fuerte Amador on Flamenco Island (in Panama Bay). Larger vessels may berth at Port Balboa.

Isla Flamenco is one of the 4 "causeway Islands (officially Islas Calzada de Amador) located by the Panama Canal's Pacific Ocean entrance. They are artificially linked to mainland Panama via a causeway. This causeway was made from rock extracted during the canal's excavations. Partially, the causeway also serves as a breakwater.

The connecting causeway has a 1-lane road running along to each of the 4 islands, plus a bicycle/jogging lane. Along the causeway there are port facilities, yacht marinas, shops, restaurants. The 4 islands are named Naos, Culebra, Perico, and Flamenco. From all these isles local pilots board the marine vessels (including cruise ships) entering Panama Canal.

Panama City doesn't have its own (in-town) passenger terminal facility. The port authority considered building a small terminal (incorporated into the city's master plan), but the research showed that such a project is not feasible. It would cost ~USD 70 million and would need to be near an airport.  Still, Bay County’s waterways can accommodate large passenger liners, so Amador Cruise Terminal could be eventually constructed, but not sooner than 2030.

(NEW) Fuerte Amador Cruise Terminal (Cruceros del Pacifico)

In October 2017, Panama City Port Authority started expanding its cruise shipping capacity by opening a second location on East Avenue. Earlier in 2017, Jan De Nul Group (family-owned company specializing in the construction and maintenance of port facilities) together with China Harbour Engineering Company Ltd (CHEC) won the USD 200+ million contract to design and build a new cruise terminal on the Fuerte Amador Causeway (Perico Island).

CHEC is a subsidiary of the 2005-founded China Communications Construction Company Ltd (CCCC) that specializes in design/engineering, construction and operation of large infrastructure assets (highways, bridges, tunnels, high-speed railways, subways, airports, marine ports, oil platforms).

The newly-formed joint venture "Cruceros del Pacifico" started works on the Terminal on October 18, 2017. The facility was officially opened/inaugurated on May 20, 2019. The project's construction phase generated a total of 2800 jobs (1000 direct plus 1800 indirect), as well as permanent terminal employees.

As part of the Cruceros del Pacifico consortium, the company Jan De Nul Panama did all preliminary works before the Terminal's construction. These preliminary works included dredging (berth pocket, turning basin, access channel) and land reclamation (8,3 hectares land area needed the construction of terminal's land-based facilities).

Managed by Panama Maritime Authority, the new Amador Cruise Terminal allows docking in Panama City of up to 5 of the world's largest passenger liners simultaneously. These are RCI's Oasis-Class liners with GT 225,000 tons and max capacity 6300 passengers plus 1200 crew.

The new facility has berthing capacity of 2 ships at a time (1 pier with 2 berths, total length 1200 ft / 366 m) and capacity to handle up to 10,000 passengers. The Amador Terminal covers total area 8,5 hectares (21 acres) and was budgeted USD 165 million (~EUR 142M). The project included infrastructure developments, a terminal building (sized 1490 m2 / 16000 ft2) with dedicated parking, surrounding green spaces, administrative buildings.

Currently, Port Colon (on Panama's Atlantic coast) handles 180+ cruise ship calls annually.

By this project, to Panama City were supplied 18x Ocean Guard Fenders (custom-made by the US-based company ShibataFenderTeam) with adjusting hardware. These foam fenders are perfect for cruise ship docking operations as their urethane skin doesn't damage the vessel's hull. Foam fenders are robust and unsinkable - even when damaged. The fenders for Fuerte Amador's Cruise Terminal were custom-designed for a wide range of tides.

Fuerte Amador Cruise Terminal was completed in 2024 and officially opened/inaugurated on March 28th. The grand ceremony was attended by Laurentino Cortizo Cohen (1953-born, the 38th President of Panama), Ricaurte Vásquez Morales (Administrator of the Panama Canal Authority) and Denise Guillen Zuniga (General Administrator of the Panama Tourism Authority).